Egypt Proving To Be A Leader In Digitally Preserving Culture

Egypt's complicated relationship with technology includes preservation and promotion of its heritage along with attempts to silence political opposition.

During the December and January protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the government clamped down on Internet access. Egyptians turned to social media to spread their message, and then-President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down.

But the government has long sponsored numerous technological efforts on behalf of its culture.

"Since the advent of the Internet, the Egyptian government has been doing a very admirable job in preserving the ancient archaeological heritage," said Farouk El-Baz, a Boston University academic.

Egyptian-born El-Baz directs the university's Center for Remote Sensing, a research facility that uses technology to discover and preserve archaeological sites.

Cyberspace is home to archaeological maps, excavation reports, data, explorers' narratives of Egypt, and images of ancient Egyptian, Islamic and Coptic art and artifacts.

El-Baz says a lot of digitization occurs in the basement of the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, which houses the world's largest collection of pharaonic artifacts.

North of Cairo on the Mediterranean, an online treasure trove of Egyptian history and culture exists at the New Library of Alexandria, at bibalex.org. It includes a digital archive of some 10,000 maps and 3,500 papyri.

The library's digitization of books include "Description de l'Egypte," 20 volumes of observations compiled by French scholars and scientists during Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798-1801 expedition.

Egyptophiles online also can visit Eternal Egypt, at eternalegypt.org. A joint effort of Egypt and IBM (IBM) in Arabic, French and English, it includes virtual tours of sites and museums, along with a 3D reconstruction of King Tut's tomb.

Shama Kabani, president of Dallas-based Marketing Zen Group, got a firsthand look at Egypt's use of technology to portray its complex history in June. She visited Cairo's Smart Village, a technology cluster and business park. There, visitors can view Culturama — cultnat.org/general/Room/pages/Culturama.aspx — a nine-screen panorama of Egyptian history featuring an interactive timeline.

Kabani was in Cairo as part of a joint program of the U.S., Egypt and Denmark to train Egyptian entrepreneurs.

Culturama presents the big picture, say, the years King Tut ruled. And it presents the minutiae, which might be the hieroglyphics on the boy king's royal chair.

It provides critical context that a visit to the pyramids, while fascinating, cannot, she says.

"Egyptian history is intricate and detailed," Kabani said. "There's also a lot of overlap with Islam and Christianity."

Egypt's complicated relationship with technology includes preservation and promotion of its heritage along with attempts to silence political opposition.

During the December and January protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the government clamped down on Internet access. Egyptians turned to social media to spread their message, and then-President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down.

But the government has long sponsored numerous technological efforts on behalf of its culture.

"Since the advent of the Internet, the Egyptian government has been doing a very admirable job in preserving the ancient archaeological heritage," said Farouk El-Baz, a Boston University academic.

Egyptian-born El-Baz directs the university's Center for Remote Sensing, a research facility that uses technology to discover and preserve archaeological sites.

Cyberspace is home to archaeological maps, excavation reports, data, explorers' narratives of Egypt, and images of ancient Egyptian, Islamic and Coptic art and artifacts.

El-Baz says a lot of digitization occurs in the basement of the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, which houses the world's largest collection of pharaonic artifacts.

North of Cairo on the Mediterranean, an online treasure trove of Egyptian history and culture exists at the New Library of Alexandria, at bibalex.org. It includes a digital archive of some 10,000 maps and 3,500 papyri.

The library's digitization of books include "Description de l'Egypte," 20 volumes of observations compiled by French scholars and scientists during Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798-1801 expedition.

Egyptophiles online also can visit Eternal Egypt, at eternalegypt.org. A joint effort of Egypt and IBM (IBM) in Arabic, French and English, it includes virtual tours of sites and museums, along with a 3D reconstruction of King Tut's tomb.

Shama Kabani, president of Dallas-based Marketing Zen Group, got a firsthand look at Egypt's use of technology to portray its complex history in June. She visited Cairo's Smart Village, a technology cluster and business park. There, visitors can view Culturama — cultnat.org/general/Room/pages/Culturama.aspx — a nine-screen panorama of Egyptian history featuring an interactive timeline.

Kabani was in Cairo as part of a joint program of the U.S., Egypt and Denmark to train Egyptian entrepreneurs.

Culturama presents the big picture, say, the years King Tut ruled. And it presents the minutiae, which might be the hieroglyphics on the boy king's royal chair.

It provides critical context that a visit to the pyramids, while fascinating, cannot, she says.

"Egyptian history is intricate and detailed," Kabani said. "There's also a lot of overlap with Islam and Christianity."

Another advantage to Culturama is that it can incorporate new information, she says.

"It has the ability to evolve," she said. "If new images or artifacts are discovered, they can be included easily in the timeline."

There are also nongovernmental efforts to tell Egypt's stories via technology. The American University in Cairo, which has a campus on Tahrir Square, runs one.

Called University on the Square, AUC's project is putting together an online chronicle of the two-and-a-half weeks leading to the Mubarak regime's overthrow. The website is aucegypt.edu/onthesquare/Pages/ots.aspx.

"We're archiving the moment in Egypt when there was a large-scale desire for a democratic civil society," said Bruce Ferguson, dean of humanities and social sciences.

Ferguson heads the AUC effort. The independent, English-language liberal arts university was established in 1919.

AUC's goal is preservation.

"The purpose is to collect and present as much of the images and experiences of Tahrir Square during the revolution," Ferguson said.

What happens with the materials later isn't the main concern, he says.

"Future historians will do with it what they please," he said. "We just want to capture as much of it as possible."

University on the Square will include interviews, photographs and videos that describe the experiences of students, faculty, staff and alumni in Egypt and elsewhere.

"We don't think that it just happened in Tahrir Square," Ferguson said. "Because of the technology, we think that the revolution was experienced around the world.

"People are grateful for the opportunity to tell their story and for a place to preserve their images."

Similar efforts are under way. The National Archives of Egypt will collect material for an online repository from the entire country, Ferguson says.

See Also

The technology sector in 2015 is picking up where 2014 left off, with the fastest pace of mergers and acquisition activity since the dot-com bubble's peak in 2000. Year to date, tech M&As total $55.3 billion globally, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis of deals with disclosed financial ...

Enterprise software maker Luxoft Holdings (NYSE:LXFT) had a big month in February, reporting blow-out earnings that improved its technical and fundamental characteristics enough to propel it onto the Sector Leaders list. After the close Feb. 11, the company reported EPS of 81 cents, a 50% increase ...

Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX) appears to have gotten its mojo back after the network management services company reported fiscal Q2 earnings after the close Thursday that soundly beat analyst estimates. So concludes Amitabh Passi, an analyst for UBS Securities, in a research report Friday. He has a neutral ...

The computer, software and consulting giant said at its annual meeting with analysts that it will shift $4 bil of '15 spending to high growth markets including cloud computing, data analytics, mobile, social and security, various reports said. CEO Virginia Rometty has set a goal of $40 bil in ...

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) continues to struggle as the global computer product giant inches closer to splitting into two companies by year's end. The company late Tuesday reported Q1 revenue that missed analyst estimates and gave a lackluster earnings outlook for the current quarter. Disappointed ...

02/25/2015 10:30 AM ET

More Technology Articles:

Wall Street analysts trying to predict the average selling price of the Apple Watch might be underestimating the impact of consumers buying extra wrist bands for the highly anticipated smartwatch. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts that the average selling price for the newest Apple ...

Small biotech Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OREX) surged 48.5% to a four-year high in enormous volume Tuesday on news that its obesity drug might not only make people look better but also help them live longer. Late Monday, Orexigen disclosed that an interim analysis of an ongoing trial looking at ...

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) on Tuesday unexpectedly reported a fourth-quarter profit and better-than-expected revenue growth, while shares of its larger rival hit a record low. JD.com, which came public last year, reported adjusted earnings per share of 1 cent, beating forecasts for ...

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) faces more competition from Apple, Facebook and others in online ads, but the company is not in danger of losing its lead. That's the conclusion from Eric Sheridan, an analyst for UBS Securities, in a research report released late Monday. "Over the past few months, investors ...

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) made investors happy Tuesday with better-than-expected quarterly profit, higher dividends and a plan to spend $1 billion over three years to buy back shares. Best Buy stock was up 1% in midday trading on the stock market today, near 39. Earlier, ...

Select market data is provided by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services. Price and Volume data is delayed 20 minutes unless otherwise noted, is believed accurate but is not warranted or guaranteed by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services and is subject to Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services terms. All times are Eastern United States. *Reflects real-time index prices.